Millwright students frustrated with Corner Brook Pulp and Paper

Millwright students in Corner Brook fear they will need to leave the province in order to clock apprentice hours. (CBC)

First year millwright students in Corner Brook are upset they can't get into the paper mill to complete their apprenticeship hours.

Jerome Bradley, one of 12 students in the program, said the Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Mill is shutting its doors to students.

"We were talking to the mill human resources and they confirmed there are currently no apprentices working there," Bradley said.

"We have heard from other people that they haven't had apprentices from sometime in the 1980s."

First-year millwright student Jerome Bradley has written a letter about Corner Brook Pulp and Paper to local MHAs and mayor Charles Pender. (CBC)

The students wrote the city and local MHAs to draw attention to the issue that you can study in Corner Brook — but you can't fill apprentice hours.

"The mill hiring us on as apprentices would benefit the city and the economy, and you will have more people living here, more people working here," Bradley said. "It's a plus for everybody."

Bradley said it wouldn't cost Kruger much money, either.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government's apprentice program pays 90 per cent of a first year student's salary, 80 per cent the the next year, and 60 per cent for third and fourth-year students.

"It's kind of disappointing, I have been living here now seven months, and I love the city and I'd love to live here and work here when I finish school, but it [doesn't] look like it's going to happen."

The students told CBC it's frustrating seeing the mill in the centre of town, and knowing they most likely won't become an apprentice there.

That has left many students worrying that they will have to leave the province in order to fulfill their apprentice hours.